I would be very careful about rushing into a car like this. While I'm certainly not a snobby Porsche "tech-weenie" zealot for originality (some may think otherwise at the end of this compendious post), this car has been butchered twice. Firstly, 1983 was the beginning year of production cabs, so any earlier 911 has been "converted" - I would say butchered. Second, many people (I'm a zealot on this one) consider the 911 one of the most beautiful cars ever conceived. Why anyone would slice off the headlights to make a "slant-nose" is beyond me.
Below is a 1977 930 I recently purchased. The car is mechanically sound. I paid $16.3K; I am planning to convert the car to a sort of RSR-ish clone, which is the red car. To a "purist", the red car has also been butchered, but perhaps like the '77 cab conversion does for you, the red car makes my heart race. I did not want to buy an unmolested 930 and butcher it to make the RSR-esque clone, so I gambled and bought a molested car at a price I considered a discount to the market.
I wish I had paid $10-15K more and bought an unmolested 930. I am too ashamed to drive my new-to-me 930 in public. When I got MT plates last month, I was going to get the novelty plate "COKE DEALER", so at least people would laugh out loud when I drove around. In Montana there is a new program whereby you can purchase permanent tags, and on this car they were only 2x the yearly fee ($60 vs. $120 - pretty amazing to me). Being of (mostly) Scottish ancestry, and hence extremely thrifty, I calculated that I can save $6000.00 over the next 100 years by doing this, but I could not have the word COKE DEALER on the lifetime plates. Now I am simply resigned to converting the car back to 911 headlights before I venture out in public.
Before you jump into a car like this, please drive as many other Porsche products as you can. I had a '69T which I NEVER should have sold. It was a tremendous car. I had a '76 911S which was not bad and is now a race car (and sort-of-for-sale) project. I have a '96 C4S which I use everyday, year-round - 3 sets of wheels - there are only 3 seasons here - early summer, late summer, and winter. I look for excuses to drive the thing, even when the snow is 2 feet deep in the road. The car is utterly incredible. I have nearly driven the wheels off , mashing the throttle like a crazed race car driver, constantly redlining and drifting through turns as if it were a rice rocket with the 18 inch fake exaust pipe stuck on the back. Thankfully there are very few people in Montana and the police are unusually civil, plus the roads are smooth as glass. Mostly they just wave and smile. For some years in the 90's there was no speed limit, which was really awesome. In spite of my constant abuse, I cannot seem to make the car break. It is really unbelievable. I have had nearly every other type of vehicle and NOTHING compares.
I am somewhat reticent to post this message because it may seem insulting to owners of "molested" (deliberately or otherwise) cars. I am interested to see what the predictably wide range of other other Porschephiles think about your '77 prospect.
You are certainly welcome to call or email me if you want the long version of what I think about any 911. I am very long winded and my advice is free, largely because I have what in Neoclassical Economic Theory is called very low opportunity cost. I do not have anything to do except drive Porsches and play the banjo, which I actually do for a living. It is nice to come home from a hard day's work in front of screaming banjo fans and do what is really fun - mess around with Porsches. Like you, I started out not knowing the cars but coveting them from afar. I soon became a complete addict. The reason this occured - I bought the '69T without inspecting it any closer than 100 feet at auction in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - is that people in the music business like to make fun of banjo players. Only accordian players are more (deservedly) ridiculed, and fortunately there are not many of them. One of the most common banjo-player jokes goes as follows:
"Hey- What's something you NEVER hear anyone say?"
"Is that the BANJO player's PORSCHE???!!!" ha ha ha ha
Crowd laughs and points at banjo player. I got so sick of this joke that I decided to buy a Porsche. No one bothered to warn me the cars are so great I would become hopelessly obsessed and spend all income from banjo playing on Porsches.
Best regards and good luck,
Tucker Smith
Bozeman, MT
406 209 1451
tucker.smith@bresnan.net 
